We have now entered the KZN (KwaZulu-Natal Province). It is most known for wild life parks that rival Kruger National Park and beaches, many of which are loaded with sharks and other exotic marine life.

We spent a few days in Durban before heading North on the N2 to Hluhuwe (pronounce ‘Sha Shloo e’) and used hotwire.com to get a good last minute deal at an ecolodge here. It is pretty calm and relaxed compared to our usual backpacker style accommodations. It looked like a peaceful rustic lodge until we discovered how killer this area really is (one of them came to introduce itself)… Holy Black Mamba!

We were cooking a late lunch in the outdoor kitchen and I go to throw some scraps in the trash. I hear a rustling in the cluster of thick bodied palm tree immediately next to the trash, then a giant loop of snake body comes down from the trees 3 ft from where I am. So shocked, I can only say ‘Kara get over here’. We watched the snake finish it’s way down the tree. The snake revealed itself as a 5-6 ft long black and gray monster. It looked dangerous and relying on our visit to the snake room at Jukani Animal Sanctuary, we could only guess it was a Black Mamba or Cape Cobra. Both of these could kill a human. We step back (even further than the initial few steps I took when I saw the snake) and watch it slither away quickly. ‘Bad Ass’ I said because it was the biggest snake either of us had ever seen in the wild. We later talked to the lodge staff and looked it up online to discover that it was indeed a BLACK MAMBA!

How powerful is the venom you may ask? Here is what wikipedia says:

‘It is reported that before antivenom was widely available, the mortality rate from a bite was nearly 100%.^[15] The bite of a black mamba can potentially cause collapse in humans within 45 minutes, or less.^[43] Without effective antivenom therapy, death typically occurs in 7–15 hours.^[28] Presently, there is a polyvalent antivenom produced by the South African Institute for Medical Research to treat black mamba bites from many localities.^[44]‘

We also saw a scorpion while walking around the property. It was pretty cool, Kara walked right over it. Luckily, we think it was trying to stay warm because it didn’t move. Once we noticed it and got closer it started trembling (weird…) but we had our camera and got a sweet photo. We didn’t have the camera when we saw the Black Mamba